Does Clean Install Wipe All Drives Exclusive [upd] (2026)

The installer creates new system partitions (EFI, MSR, Recovery, and Primary) on the target drive only . It does not touch other physical drives.

A clean installation of Windows does automatically wipe all drives ; by default, it only affects the specific drive or partition you select for the installation. However, secondary drives can still be impacted by manual formatting during setup or system misconfigurations. How a Clean Install Interacts with Multiple Drives does clean install wipe all drives exclusive

A "clean install" does automatically wipe all drives; it typically only affects the specific drive or partition you choose during the setup. However, some automated recovery methods, like a "Reset this PC," can be configured to wipe every connected drive. Clean Install vs. Reset The installer creates new system partitions (EFI, MSR,